Herniated Disc
What Is a Herniated Disk?
A Herniated Disk is an illness that occurs as a result of the slipping of the discs between the 5 vertebrae, compressing the spinal cord forming the spine. Thus, the nerves separated from the spinal cord due to wear, tear or displacement or various reasons. Moreover, the discs are located between your bones, so they can move easily. It’s called a herniated disc when one of these disks tears or leaks.
Who Gets a Herniated Disk?
Mostly people who:
- are between 30 and 50
- spend long time on sitting without changing position
- are overweight
- lift heavy objects
- smoke a lot
- People who bend and twist a lot
- Men are more at risk than women
Discs have soft, gel-like centers. They have a firm outer layer. As people age, this outer layer gets weaker and crack. The fluid which leaks pressures on the spinal nerves around.
Symptoms of Herniated Disk
- Pain in arms and legs
- Numbness and tingling in the areas of the nerves affected by lumbar hernia
- Weakness in the muscles
- Inability to stay on tiptoe
- Difficulty in walking
- Pain in the waist, hips, and legs
- Major restrictions on movements
- Difficulty sitting and getting up
- Incontinence
- Quick exhaustion
Causes of Herniated Disk
- Some injuries
- Having a sedentary lifestyle and being overweight
- Fluid loss due to smoking
- Sudden moves
- Office job
- Driving too much
- Pregnancy
Tests Done to Diagnose Herniated Disk in Antalya Med World Clinic:
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): The most valid and prevalent technique to treat and diagnose of herniated disk is MRI.
X-rays: To find the underlying reasons of neck and back pain, getting x-rays is necessary.
Myelogram: To detect if there is a spinal canal narrowing, in the myelogram process, doctors inject some substance. It helps to reveal any narrowing.
CT (Computerized Tomography): The bones of the spine can be examined with CT.
Electromyography (EMG): To detect patient’s nerves functioning, some needles are used. Doctors place a few needles into muscles.
In addition to the techniques above to diagnose, a herniated disk can be diagnosed by evaluating the patient’s medical history carefully.
If you think that you might have a herniated disk, we can suggest you to do the things below to relieve your pain:
- Applying cold or heat to the region that aches may be useful.
- Painkillers like Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen etc. help to decrease pain.
- Having bed rest for a few days but not long is beneficial. Nevertheless, you should avoid staying in bed for a long time because it can cause muscle stiffness.
The Treatment Methods That are Applied in Antalya Med World Clinic for Lumbar Hernia
All kinds of Lumbar hernia treatments in Antalya Med World Clinic are applied individually. In general, surgical operation is not necessary. Apart from severe cases like fecal incontinence, enuresis (urinary incontinence), rapid progressive loss of motion and neurologic disorders. Thus, painkillers and drugs that relax muscle are preferred instead of surgical operation in most cases. If it is needed, functional bracing is used.
In the process of herniated disc treatments in Antalya Med World Clinic, physical therapy and rehabilitation have an essential role. In addition, the most common physical therapies used in our clinic are massage therapy, laser, physical exercise therapy, acupuncture (needling) etc. Also, nerve block anesthesia and epidural are used to decrease the pain in the lumbar area.
Best Herniated Disk Treatments
Medical Treatment: Drugs used to relax muscles and anti-inflammatory painkillers.
Spinal Injections: Steroid medication is directly applied to the patient’s spine.
Physical Therapy: Our therapists offer physical exercise programs that aim to decrease pressure on the nerves.
Surgery: Surgical operation is necessary in some herniated disk cases in our Antalya Med World Clinic. For this reason, there are various types of surgery, but their primary purpose is to decrease the pressure on the nerves.
Before you start your herniated disk treatment in Antalya Med World Clinic, get answers to these questions from your doctor.
- Is heat or ice useful?
- Will physical exercises help?
- How much bed rest do I need?
- How much and what kind of physical exercise is necessary?
- What kind of injections do healthcare specialists will apply to relieve my pain?
Frequently Asked Questions and Their Answers About Herniated Disc
Herniated Disk patients usually feel tingling and expansive numbness in some parts of their body.
Mostly, herniated disks can recover with treatments at home.
Physical Therapy, resting at home, painkillers, and injections applied to the spine.
Our surgeons mostly remove the protrusile part and rarely the whole disk hernia.
Of course not because the pain fades away in time after herniated disk treatment. Indeed, these treatments do not cause any permanent damage.
Yes, MRI scan is mostly used to detect circular laceration, cystose and herniated disks.
Does Herniated Disk get worse?
When patients do heavy work or exercise or when they are very active, their herniated disk gets worse. However, it gets better when they rest. On the other hand, physical movements like bending, sitting or standing too much, driving, sneezing, even coughing can make it worse.
To sleep better, patients can place a pillow under their back or knees.
Herniated disk patients should do walking exercise daily.
Bed rest is good for herniated disk, but not too long.
According to the severeness and the place that the hernia occurs, it takes three to seven weeks. However, patients start feeling better in the first days of the treatment.
Because disks get weaker with old age, having herniated disk increases and ruptured disks develop.
To diagnose herniated disk and start herniated disk treatment in Antalya Med World Clinic, our physiotherapist experts MRI, CT, and ultrasound equipments.
Patients with a Herniated Disk should avoid 12 Things
- Resting in bed too long
- Sitting for long periods of time
- Vacuuming
- Bending
- Picking up
- Heavy carrying while doing laundry
- Feeding pets
- Exercises like deadlift, stretching, sit-up and all kind of exercises including twist.
- Yard work
- Sleeping without taking precautions for your herniated disk
- Eating junk and unhealthy foods such as processed, sugary, fatty and GM foods, grains, meats.
- In addition to these, sports including running like football.
14 best physical exercises for back to relieve the pain:
- Pull-apart by using resistance bands.
- Chopping wood.
- Pull down.
- Suspended row exercises.
- Stretching back.
- Wide dumbbell bent-over row.
- Quadruped single-arm dumbbell row.
- Superman.
- Barbell deadlift.
- Renegade dumbbell row.
- Single-arm dumbbell row.
- Pull-ups.
- Reverse fly.
- Also, forearm plank.
Summary
To sum up, we can define herniated disk as a physical disease that occurs in spinal. What’s more, it causes pressure on nerves, weakness, irritation, pain, and numbness in the body parts.
However, people can prevent disk hernia. Nonetheless, driving, sitting, aging, and genetic are some factors that make getting herniated disk easier. Hence, to prevent this, quitting smoking, weight control and learning how to move is important.
Equipments like CT scans, myelogram, x-rays, MRI are used for physical examination, diagnosing and getting detailed information about disks’ condition.
Nevertheless, you do not need to worry about your herniated disk because our physiotherapist experts are ready for you to apply the most appropriate treatment of herniated disk in Antalya Med World Clinic, Turkey. Additionally, physical and medication therapies are very easy. For this reason, it does not take long and most patients recover with minimal treatments. Nevertheless, severe cases might need surgical operations, as we talked about before. As a result, you can get recommendation from your doctor or get detailed information by contacting us.